I saw a bit of the Samp - Inter match. It wasn't brilliant, but I think from what I saw Samp looked comfortable. Unfortunately, Inter scored soon after I turned it on. We really need to step up, Roma, Napoli and Juve all showing signs of recovery in recent weeks.

Just a quick thought I had and was interested in other opinions, but Sarri's recent success at Napoli has got me wondering whether Italian football actually lacks the talent, or whether the problem is compounded by coaches. Some coaches, Sarri and Di Francesco standing out in mind, but also others like Ventura and possibly Gasperini and Conte have all managed to get some great results with Italian players. You look at Sarri's work with Jorginho, Insigne, Valdifiori and others like Saponara, Rugani and Tonelli and how well they've done since he worked with them and similar with Di Francesco with Acerbi, Zaza and particularly Berardi, or Ventura with Cerci, Darmian and Immobile and more recently Baselli and it makes you wonder if there's not enough coaches in Italy who are able to get the best from players or educate them to take the leap to the highest level.

Insigne especially made me think about this. His improvement this year has been startling, he's always had talent (I've been a fan since he broke through), but now he looks much more complete and the end product.

Not to say Italy would be winning World Cups if more coaches were like the names mentioned above, but I do get the impression Italy isn't showing it's potential.

Central coordination for the NTs - player development for national level - certainly doesn't exist. As far as individual teams one probably has to balance 'Italy as a whole is poor' with individual circumstances. Milan is not well suited to developing but that is not necessarily true of others teams. Even if other teams are just as bad at it as Milan they might be able to change 'culture' faster than Milan can. Like a new coaching teams can influence the team faster at another team. Probably it is not correct to automatically assume Italy lacks talent at teenage level just because the 20+ year olds don't perform better. If that makes sense.

You raise a valid point with the coaches there, Dev. I decided to quickly look at Italy's U-21 Euro performances since the win in 2004 (with De Rossi, Bonera et al) and see what the results were like.

2006: Did not get out of group stage. Finished 3rd in a group of Ukraine, Netherlands, and Denmark.
2007: Did not get out of the group stage. Finished 3rd in a group of Serbia, England, and Czech Republic
2009: Losing semi-finalist against eventual winners Germany. Team consisted of players such as Balotelli, Giovinco, Candreva, Criscito, Cigarini, etc. Link
2011: Did not qualify
2013: Runners up to Spain. Team with Verratti, Insigne, Gabbiandini, etc. Link
2015: Did not get out of group stage. Finished 3rd in group with Portugal, Sweden, England.

So in the past 10 years or so, Italy has really only had two "positive" results at this tournament. Now obviously, success at one tournament cannot say definitely what the state of football is in a particular country. However, I am of the opinion that a couple of factors are at play here.

Coaches are under a lot of pressure to provide immediate results and are scared to trust young players. As a result, upon leaving the Primavera, players either find themselves languishing in Serie B or C or rotting on the benches of mid-low table clubs in Serie A.

The academies perhaps need to adjust their methods of training players so that they do not feel shackled by tactics at an early age and are able to develop and express their creativity on the pitch.

I do agree though that there is too much talent in that 2009 team that has been allowed to go by the wayside. Balotelli aside, Giovinco is now in the MLS, Cigarini plays for Atalanta, Criscito is at Zenit, Cerci and Ranocchia are both jokes. If Verratti had not gone to PSG, he would probably have suffered the same fate as Cigarini.

I would not say that there is an abundance of talent, but certainly coaches have their part to play to ensure that the mistakes of the 2009 U-21 generation are not repeated.

Great point indeed, Dev. It is just a shame that I don't have enough expertise to make any valid judgment of a coach's caliber, so I can only rely on their record or their peer's evaluation for it. Apparently, Pippo Inzaghi has been piss poor (even I can see that), but what about Mihajlovic? I thought that his record was decent (perhaps not stellar), and didn't Capello most recently say that he considered Mihajlovic as his natural heir? I have always held high respect to Capello as I followed his entire coaching career with us. Could Capello be wrong?

Of course, I understand that it wasn't your main point. On your question, the way I see it, talents are important, coaches are important, but what's really imperative is institution, a healthy and functional support system (both Reza and Mystik touched upon). I feel that is something that Italy is lacking in general, and something that is woefully lacking in Milan.

Thanks for the replies. Reza, I agree that in Italy there's a clear lack of structure for youth development. I'd use Spain and Germany as examples of how a well organised youth development process should work. That's not just dependent on their successes internationally, but also the successes their club football has seen in recent years.

I think Italy needs to focus on youth development at all levels, it's in the interest of the clubs to do so because it help make them more competitive on sound business principles.

Mystik, the results are indicative of a lack of competitiveness on youth national levels, but I'm more worried about your point about the number of talents who came through and have been lost. There has been talent that's come through, yet there's too many examples of these players never coming close to fulfilling their potential.

I think you're right that a lot of youth coaches are too focused on the wrong things (i.e. the result). I'm sure you know this is a big issue in South America, I doubt Italy's much different.

The other aspect is what and how the players are taught. You mentioned allowing players to have more fun and express creative freedom and I totally agree with that. On the flip side, I came across a couple of interesting comments recently, I think the first being from Nesta where he said players aren't taught how to defend properly (to the level he was) these days and Rivera where he commented how players don't know how to defend one on one anymore.

Xu, we can only make comments as fans so honestly your opinion and view on things is as valid as anyone. My thought about Mihajlovic is that he's shown instances, particularly at his time from Sampdoria, to have successfully brought through some players, one of which is Romagnoli. Today Capello again has put forward an opinion that he rates Miha highly. I think what you say about Milan's environment as an institution is totally valid, this isn't just internally in the club either, but I think is something that's compounded by the media and fans. Look at Ely as an example. He came in with literally no expectations when he was resigned in the summer. His summer performances have lead people to say he and Romagnoli are our future CB pairing and now he's under constant criticism following the start to the season. The extreme reaction to a 20 year old is never going to benefit him, there's got to be a little balance. In my view, Ely shouldn't have been a starter this year, Miha trusted him and it's backfired, but really those in charge have put this situation in place where these young players are under too much pressure with no safety net should they fail.

It's the same for Miha. We all spoke well of him for having courage to trust the young players, but as soon as difficulties start, everyone starts talking about him getting sacked.

However, there's one thing I will say about a coach like Sarri which I think is important to the growth of talented players. Sacchi the other day said that one thing Sarri's really good at is teaching his players about the game he wants to play, something I don't think anywhere near enough coaches do. It's one thing to tell a player to take a specific position and run from point a to point b, but for that player to make a step up and really be a success at the top level, they need support in understanding the reasons for them to move from point a to point b and the impact that has elsewhere. I think Guardiola's shown himself as another who's actually really good at this.